Mueller's chapter: "Constructing Wicca as 'Women's Religion': A By-Product of Feminist Religious Scholarship"

"These 25 essays by faculty and graduate students have great classroom potential. Contributions include smart theoretical essays (Michelle Mueller’s “Constructing Wicca as ‘Women’s Religion’: A By-Product of Feminist Religious Scholarship” shows how academics can sway popular imagination)...." --Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt), Choice Reviews 59.8

Mueller's chapter: "The Chalice and the Rainbow: Conflicts Between Women's Spirituality and Transgender Rites in US Wicca in the 2010s"

"Michelle Mueller's article on transgender rights in North American Wicca in the 2010s, brings modern Paganism into the twenty-first century: beyond the heteronormative dyadic model of the 1950s, through the feminist separatist model of the 1970s, to the issue of trans women seeking to participate in Wicca, which created tensions at Cherry Hill Seminary and on the Pagan blog The Wild Hunt." --Carole M. Cusack, Nova Religio 22.4

Columbia University Press

Clothing, dress, and ornamentation are crucial parts of individual and communal religious life and practice, yet they are too often overlooked. This book convenes leading scholars to explore the roles of attire and adornment in the creation and communication of religious meaning, identity, and community. Contributors investigate aspects of religious dress in North America in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, considering adornment practices in a wide range of religious traditions and among individuals who straddle religious boundaries. The collection is organized around four frameworks for understanding the material culture of religion: theological interpretation, identity formation, negotiation of tradition, and activism.

Religion, Attire, and Adornment in North America features essays on topics such as Black Israelites’ use of African fabrics, Christian religious tattoos, Wiccan ritual nudity, Amish “plain dress,” Mormon sacred garments, Hare Krishna robes, and the Church of Body Modification. Spanning the diversity of religious practice and expression, this book is suitable for a range of undergraduate courses and offers new insights for scholars in many disciplines.

Mueller's chapter: "'Ye Shall Be Naked in Your Rites': Ritual Attire and Ritual Nudity (Skyclad) in North American Wicca"

Edited by Benjamin E. Zeller & Marie W. Dallam